Small, handheld computing devices have been steadily growing in popularity in recent years. The devices are known by different names, such as palmtops, pocket computers, personal digital assistants, personal organizers, H/PCs, or the like. Additionally, many portable telephone systems, such as cellular phones, incorporate sufficient computing capabilities to fall within the category of the small, handheld computing devices. These devices, hereinafter “mobile computing devices” provide much of the same functionality as their larger counterparts. In particular, mobile computing devices provide many functions to users including word processing, task management, spreadsheet processing, address book functions, Internet browsing, and calendaring, as well as many other functions in addition to voice communications.
During a phone call, the parties (i.e., people having the telephone call) may wish to use some of the additional functionality provided by the mobile computing devices. Some of these additional functions involve transfer of data between the parties' computing devices. However, one or more of the parties may have a mobile computing device that is only capable of using a voice channel (i.e., does not have the circuitry to use separate data channels that some service providers provide), or may not have subscribed to use such a separate data channel. Further, even if all of the parties support data transfers over a separate data channel, the use of the separate data channel may require that the parties terminate the telephone call and/or incur an additional charge for using the data channel.